What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger
by Magus Peverell
Summary: I didn't know why was I born here. But in this new and dangerous world, I had to survive. Being born as heir to Greengrass has its share of boons and curses, but I have to persevere despite all the obstacles I face. I have to be ready to face deadlier things and even if I fall down, I lose, I will become more powerful. Because, What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger.
1. Persevere

**What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger**

 **Disclaimer** **: I do not own Harry Potter universe nor its characters. Familiar characters and references you see here belong to their respected authors and owners. The authors will be mentioned below so as to ensure that they are well credited and recognised.**

 **All suggestions, reviews, criticism, remarks are welcome. Let's get this thing going.**

 **Also, I am a novice writer, to all the visitors, even if you don't like the story, at least give me a suggestion in reviews on how I could improve myself and why you are not interested in the story.**

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 **Chapter 1: Persevere**

"My given task is accomplished Lord Greengrass." I said as walked to his table and handed out the parchment to my instructor.

He tore off his gaze from the documents he was currently reading and silently took hold of my given parchment and gazed upon my writing. This was my calligraphy assignment and my task was to write a 9-inch essay, in beautiful handwriting on a given topic. The topic this time was – Asphodel Roots. While I didn't know much about it, I had filled the parchment to the best of my ability with the information about its structure, appearance, locations where it is found and its various uses in potion making.

After a few moments of contemplative silence, looking at me, Lord Greengrass commented, "Next time, improve your handwriting and write the other rudimentary and supplementary uses of the ingredient."

Nodding to his suggestion and looking into his eyes, I replied, "Thank you, fathe- "

I suddenly felt an intrusion into my mind.

 _My memories flashed before me._

 _I am 6 years old, writing, writing._

 _Holding my right hand in pain, writing._

 _I couldn't scream, knowing screaming would only increase my punishment._

 _I am writing._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _I am writing. I am writing with my own blood._

 _My hand held a blood quill, which was extracting blood from my veins._

 _I am writing. I am writing with my own blood._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _I am in so much pain. My hand feels like it would burst now. This is torture but I couldn't stop now._

 _I am writing._

 _There are no familial ties while training. Lord Greengrass is my instructor._

 _There are no familial ties while trai-_

The memories stopped and I fell on my knees while holding my right hand. I knew there was no pain in reality but the phantom pain from the incident two years ago triggered. Slowly, mentally, ordering the phantom pain to go away, I looked at _Lord Greengrass_ who was back to reading his documents.

"Make sure to give me a proper assignment next time." I heard him speak and without looking into his eyes, I bowed and said,

"Thank you, Lord Greengrass"

I didn't look up and after a few seconds I heard him say, "Leave me now."

And I promptly left the study room and slowly closed the door to his room.

Feeling as though my whole life-force was drained, I took a few seconds to just stand outside the study room's closed door. After feeling somewhat well, I noticed my clothes were soaked with sweat with sitting with my Lord Greengrass for hours, and so deciding to take a shower, I methodically walked towards the attached bathroom in my room and turned the knob, to open the door.

Entering the bathroom and stripping out of my clothes, I let my gaze fall into the mirror in front of me and blond hair and bright green eyes looked back. My name was Adrian Greengrass, son of Eugene Greengrass and Adrianna Greengrass and I was the heir to the _Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass._

Walking towards the shower, I slowly activated the warming rune in the pipe and let my thoughts wander as warm water fell over my body.

It had been 8 years since Voldemort had been 'defeated' in the wizarding world. Thankfully, unlike many protagonists, I didn't lose much in the war. The Greengrass family had always been a Neutral one, favouring what was beneficial to them, while we would have been forced to choose sides if the war escalated any further but in current time our wealth and prestige didn't suffer because of the backlash from the end of the war.

All around the world, Harry Potter was celebrated and hailed as the Boy-who-lived and while the majority of the world thought he was with Dumbledore, preferably being trained, I knew where he was and what was the supposedly 'saviour' forced to do.

I started thinking, I had to prepare, for it was only 7 years remaining when Voldemort would rise to the surface once more and with only a couple years of time, the war deciding the fate of the wizarding world would start again.

I knew all this despite the fact that I was just 8 years old.

And how do I know all this you ask?

Well, this isn't the first time I had lived.

 **XXXXX**

In my previous life, I was an orphan by birth. I didn't know who my parents were and frankly, I didn't care. I didn't care if they were dead or had abandoned me, I preferred to live in the present than to ponder upon supposedly _what ifs_. I was thankfully in a well to do orphanage with several other children. The orphanage was one of the biggest in the town where I lived and most of the orphaned children were stationed there. Even though there was no lack of monetary funding, one of the main rules of the orphanage was that – _the orphanage will only provide the money for necessity not luxury_. This was also the place where my pragmatic and manipulative nature was born and honed.

We, the orphans, were allowed to do menial tasks, like selling newspapers, tending to shops in mornings, maintain lawns of nearby houses, delivering vegetables, doing shopping for nearby houses, etc. after taking permission from the matron of the orphanage. The matron of the orphanage also cared enough about us so as to personally meet the employer to ensure that the orphans did not find themselves in a bad company who could employ them to do illegal tasks for money. The matron was well respected and adored by the population of the town for her kind nature towards the unfortunates like orphans while also being strict when we did something wrong. The population also commented that only due to the matron's personal involvement in our lives, we _\- the orphans -_ didn't turn into some kind of criminals.

The matron was in her late thirties and had been serving the orphanage for a decade. It is said that she herself was an orphan by birth and later when she grew up and graduated from college, she fell in love with a man, married him and later moved out of the orphanage. A few months later she had a son with the man and was finally happy in her life.

But a few years later, everything started crashing down. She found out that her husband was starting to deal in drugs despite having a stable job and she tried to convince him to stop, at least for the future of their child, but the man refused to budge, lost in his greed for money. She later filed a divorce and fought for the custody of her child who was around 3 at the time, stating her husband's drugs deals. But in the court, she failed to prove her husband's involvement in the said drug deals and due to her not having any kind of job and hence lack of ability to properly raise her son, was awarded a divorce but lost the custody of the child to her husband.

Broken-heartedly, she arrived at the doors of the orphanage and was warmly welcomed by the then matron of the orphanage. She then started serving the orphanage and stated that the children in the orphanage were now her own sons and daughters, though a few months later it was later found that her husband was found dead due to drug overdose and her son was also found dead reasoning to dehydration and malnutrition.

It was that incident which led to her hate towards criminal activities and she wanted her children – _us, the orphans –_ to stay away from such. At least that's what she told me when she found my 13-year-old self, stealing a new toy from my roommate. She said that what started as mild stealing for satisfying the curiosity to see a new toy could later turn into an obsessive need for getting anything new by any means possible, hence turning me into a criminal and she didn't want her son – _me_ – to become such.

But truthfully, I didn't stop, what didn't kill me made me stronger. I just became smarter, I thought about what gave me away the previous time and then planned beforehand so as no clues were pointed towards me. I started living pragmatically, thinking before doing any work and even started to manipulate and blackmail my fellow roommates to give some of their monthly stipends to me in return to not rat out their secrets and using them to get what I wanted. Truth is I didn't feel bad doing such since I had soon learned that in this competitive world, only improving oneself mattered, Survival of the fittest so as to speak. In school, I studied smarter not harder and found myself in the top tier in academics. By the time I finished high school, at least to the outside world, I was one of the most adored students in the school and the matron too had no complaints towards me since I didn't break any rules, some of my school teachers even offered to write recommendation letters for colleges. Life was going well, and like everything, it soon crashed.

I still remember, a few days after my high school graduation, I woke to sounds of police sirens, gunfire and unnecessary shouting from the entrance of the orphanage. I rushed there and found the matron and all the other orphans at gunpoint of a masked terrorist, while his partner was shouting to the police below about something to free his companion. Apparently, the couple of terrorists were from a terrorist organisation and a fellow companion of theirs' had been captured and to make their demands come true, they had decided to take the orphanage hostage. By the time I had reached near the matron and other orphans, the one with the gun had pointed his gun towards the matron and pulled the trigger.

I didn't know what I had done, I didn't know what my body had done, but the fading life-force proved such that I had performed my last, final action in this world. I had jumped in front of the matron and taken the shot meant for her in my heart without any thought. I was supposed to be pragmatic, logical, intelligent but I behaved like a fool, like an idiot at that moment. Since I had arrived late and the terrorists didn't see me, I could have signalled one of the police officers from the window and they could have entered the orphanage from there, I could have jumped out from the window at least saving my own life but idiotically, I rushed towards the gunfire saving the person who had practically raised me as hers when I had no one in this world, the only person for whom I remotely cared in one small corner of my heart like a child loves his mother, even though the matron didn't care for me much specifically and just saw me one of them. But even in my dying, final moments, I practically threw away my entire life, my upcoming college life, my future, everything, I died without regrets.

I don't remember much after that, I was apparently floating in the air, slowly drifting farther and farther into the sky, I could hear some screaming, as the terrorists shot the matron next, and more gunfire, more killings and finally the big explosion enveloping the entire orphanage, killing the terrorists and all the orphans.

 **XXXXX**

I slowly turned the shower off and proceeded to dry myself using a towel. Draping the towel, around my waist, I exited the bathroom and moved toward the closet. Opening it, among the myriad of shimmering cloaks, tunics and vests, I selected a purple acromantula silk shirt and black trousers. According to my father, even in my own house, I wasn't allowed to wear anything less than that of one befitting a pureblood heir.

Dressing up, I allowed my eyes to roam towards my present surroundings, my room. My room inherently was simple, I had a table in which I did most of my studies in one corner of the room, the closet containing my clothes in the corner on the other side, a big king-sized bed to sleep in in the centre and the door which led to the attached bathroom adjacent to the closet. At least, I wanted it to be such, but Lord Greengrass felt the room not to be worthy to that of the heir of the house and so he decided to remodel it according to his preferences. The room was enlarged and while the structure of the room was basically kept the same, the empty space created by the enlargement was filled with novelty trinkets bought from various shops, a cleansweep 7 broom in a custom-made showcase, a bookcase with common magical theory books and a few framed picturesque, moving sceneries. I knew most of them were useless to me and were only kept so as to create a positive impression on the guest, it was also specifically creepy since I also knew that the some of the trinkets contained several monitoring charms which would automatically give away mine and if I had any guest's every movement's status report to Lord Greengrass.

The only precious thing I had in the room, was the picture exactly facing the bed, so I could look at it every time I wake up. It was a picture of a smiling blond-haired couple holding two bundles draped in white cloth. It was the only picture I had of my whole family, the only scene I had ever seen of a smiling Lord Greengrass and also the only picture I had of my late mother.

After dying in my previous life, everything was hazy, everything was bright, everything was dark, everything was cold and everything was warm. The earliest feeling that I had was of sucking something warm and losing control of my bowels and the earliest memory I can remember was of seeing a blurry female face feeding me and cleaning my excreta. It was only after I was about 3-year-old, I had any sort of semblance of control over my thought processes. I wasn't a slow child by any chance, I had started walking by the age of 10 months and speaking, though only single words by 7 months of age or so I am told now, it was only by the beginning of my 3rd year in this life, when my brain had somewhat developed and I was beginning to have thoughts, I started feeling something was wrong. It was a confusing existence, I felt something was missing, something had happened, my hands should be bigger, my face should be different, my surroundings should be different and finally my memories of my previous life started merging with that of my current conscience.

It was painful, oh, so, so painful, I would often cry loudly and wake my nanny while holding my head. The nanny would speak to my father, Lord Greengrass, who would just dismiss them and tell her to do the work she is assigned to. It was only after a particularly painful and crippling headache in which I had apparently created a seismic blast from my body, which had shattered all the grass items in my room, woke my sleeping sister in the neighbouring room, threw away the nanny towards the wall and shook the floor planks so the vibration was felt in my father's room across the hall, in my first bout of accidental magic, had my father decided to take me to St. Mungo's for a check-up. Apparently, it was found that the neurons in my brain were transmitting information at the highest speed possible and most of the blood in my body was pumped towards my brain and new neurons were created at an accelerated rate. The doctors were surprised since it was not an ordinary ailment and they apparently had no immediate cure for it, the only solution they had was to wait for my brain to finish developing and let the natural magic in my body do its job. The magic in my body was also constantly concentrated in stabilising my brain and such the amount of magic present in my baby body, as small as they may be, were never full. Since such a predicament will only increase my magic reserves down the line, Lord Greengrass let me suffer for it and while he was about to take me away from the hospital, I had enough presence of mind to start crying again while holding my head, the doctors coerced Lord Greengrass to _at least_ give me some harmless painkiller potions, then the man agreed so as to no harm to befall his _investment._

It was only after I was around 5 years old did the headaches stop and I had fully assimilated my past memories. But now, even after 3 years, I barely remember much of it, unless it was either very essential to my past, or will be essential to my present life's future. It is like learning the alphabets when we were kids, we do remember the alphabets because they are useful, necessary but we do not remember who taught it to us, with whom did we learn it first, which was our first word, where did we first recite them, etc. In my current age of 8, I don't even remember my name in my past life, neither the names of the matron or the fellow orphans I interacted with, the only information I want to remember is that of the current life I am living and the various Harry Potter books which I read in my past life which would inherently help me now in present.

But my past life doesn't matter anymore, I am Adrian Greengrass now and that is all that matters.

While researching about my family, I found that my father and mother met and fell in love during Hogwarts years. My father was of a minor pureblood and my mother was the heiress of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass, an old pureblood family. While my mother's parents were reluctant about the marriage at first, it was only after my father became a member of the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW), did they agree him to betroth to my mother while continuing the Greengrass family name. My father then starting working as a delegation from Great Britain to ICW while my mother stayed home and worked on spell creation, which was also her hobby. They were very happy and later when it was found that my mother was pregnant, my father was overjoyed and apparently threw a huge party in which he invited both his and her Hogwarts' friends.

As the months passed on, my mother started growing weak, since the birth of a magical child was very taxing on the mother. It was the mother which nurtured the magical prowess inside the baby and the magic inside the mother's body basically created the magical circuits inside of the baby. Even though she had become very weak, so as to my father had to take an unplanned vacation for a couple months from his job, she persisted, determined to bring her baby into the world.

And she was successful and after 9 months of enduring tremendous pain, the delivery date had arrived. The doctors proceeded to deliver the baby but complications arose when not one but two babies were found in the womb, a boy and a girl. Even though my mother had to divide her magic to nurture both of us twins' magics, and was suffering from severe magical deprivation, she held strong and we proceeded to be a happy family and that particular picture was taken. We were born on April 31st 1980 and I was named Adrian after my mother's name Adrianna and my father chose Daphne, meaning Victory for my sister. My father even proceeded to boast about how Eugene – _lucky –_ he was. Both my parents were happy, at least for the moment.

A few days later, it was found that my mother could no longer handle the stress of magical loss created by her magical deprivation, and her body was slowly cannibalising herself. I had also found out that my father apparently spent three days and nights beside my mother without eating any food, and only left her hand when it was cold and she was no more.

Later down the years, I realised I had not only lost my mother that day, I did my father as well.

Since my mother was now dead, my father became the sole inheritor of the Greengrass name, prestige and fortune and he apparently wanted us to elevate the name of the family my mother was from and was ready to go to the utmost lengths so as to make that come true.

He wanted to make me an heir who would take the Greengrass family name to greater heights and trained us as to not embarrass the Greengrass name. He beat us when we made mistakes, he punished us, monitored our every action and wanted us to be nothing less than perfect who would make his wishes come true.

But thankfully, I was not alone this time, I had someone who became my emotional support as I became hers. While I was alone in my previous life, at least in this one I had someone to share the suffering and someone to rely on.

 **XXXXX**

It was the time for dinner and Lord Greengrass and I were sitting on the family table, he was reading some documents from work and I was idly looking towards the Floo network in our mansion waiting for Daphne.

The Floo network was, I found out while reading, complicated and not as pretty as it was mentioned in the books. It was not as simple as just throwing some dust, saying the name of the location and arriving there. The magical Floo powder reacted to the Floo network energy, and utilising the wizard's magic would turn the wizard into a tiny particle. The particle will be transferred towards the predestined destination at very high speeds and after reaching the opposite Floo place, the particle will then proceed to turn back into the wizard and teleportation will be successful. It was pretty easy in usage but enough Floo powder needed to be thrown into the Floo place and the person has to have enough magic for the teleportation, so essentially, an injured person couldn't travel via Floo, Flooing more than a single person at a time was also dangerous and also a person has to leave the destined Floo place, so as to let the other person come. More than a few deaths, per year, were registered due to hazardous Floo accidents.

Also, while a single Floo network was connected to every other one, it was not as easily accessible. If it were, instead of ambushing an enemy house, one could just go to their own Floo place and say the name of their enemy house's name and viola, infiltrating the enemy household had never been easier. But in truth, it doesn't work that way. Expressive permission had to be given to be welcomed at another person's Floo place. If a person does not have the permission to enter the Floo place of the house, then on the easy spectrum, the Floo will just not work and on the hard spectrum, the person will be transported but will be thrown to the dungeons of the house in which they were attempting to enter. While some places like Ministry of Magic and Diagon Alley are mandatorily connected to every Floo network, the reverse wasn't true. A person's specific magical signature had to be registered in the particular Floo place and if guests were expected, then there should be a person on the other end of the Floo place, so as to allow the access to the guest on their side.

I was broken out of my musing with the spontaneous appearance of green flames indicating Daphne had arrived. Daphne Greengrass was my younger sister by 3 minutes or so. She had blond hair and sapphire blue eyes which she had apparently inherited from our father, while I had inherited my green ones from our mother. Exiting the Floo place, she gracefully walked towards Lord Greengrass. As per one of the numerous rules of the house, she bowed before our father and started reciting what all she had accomplished in the dance class while she was there and only after a subtle nod of acknowledgement from him, did she walk towards her seat in the table, beside mine, and sat down. Sitting beside me, she gave me a small smile and we waited for the food to arrive.

With the snap from Lord Greengrass' finger, the documents he was reading disappeared and food prepared by the house-elves appeared before our eyes. The dinner was a very silent affair and was meant to be like that in our home. While having dinner together wasn't in the rulebooks, it was a tradition which my late mother insisted having and hence was diligently followed.

After we had finished our dinner, Lord Greengrass stood up from his seat and started moving towards his study. While going, without even looking at me, I heard him say, "Heir Adrian, meet me in my study in 10 minutes." and like the empty plates now disappearing from our views, we watched as he moved away from us.

I felt my hand gripped tightly and I looked to my left and saw Daphne looking at me with concern, I squeezed her hand back and with a reassuring look said, "It's okay, I will be back soon. You go and try to sleep."

Carefully standing up and moving my hand away from hers, I slowly but gracefully walked towards his study. Apparently walking was also one of the fields in which I was monitored and graded on and if he doesn't find me doing as he wished, my punishment will be doubled and he will have no qualms to exploit my _only major weakness_.

After knocking on Lord Greengrass' door two times, and only after hearing an order to enter, I allowed myself to stand in the same place as I was this morning. As soon as I looked into his eyes, he wasted no time to blast upon my occlumency shields. Apparently, he wanted me to start upon the family magics, but couldn't till I had raised and perfected occlumency to the level that no one could invade my mind and exploit information, and the best way to do that was by him assaulting and exploiting my mind repeatedly and painfully. And no, no, it wasn't done out of some concern or anything. It was done only so as a mandatory protection to preserve the secrets of the Greengrass family and so that no one could exploit the family secrets or magics from my mind.

In my mind, Lord Greengrass was repeatedly, hammering my shields at different places at regular intervals while checking the time needed for me to repair the cracks formed by his assault. It was a torture since my head felt like it was about to explode and I couldn't even drag my eyes away from his since I knew what the punishments and position were to be faced later for such insolence. But while trying to repair those cracks, my mind wandered off and I thought,

' _All the root of problems is this man in front of me. If I just kill this man, then Daphne and I could live much peacefully and happily. Yes! That's what I should do, I will kill him and then I can even sell this manor and all the grimoires in the family at a high price. With that Daphne and I could leave this place and live happily- '_

' _Wait! What?'_

I quickly realised what happening and closed the lid to my thought and let all my thought fade away. It was all his doing, Lord Greengrass was now using legilimency, projecting his thoughts into mine while making me this that it was all my doing, the wizarding version of Inception if you will. Though I was caught surprisingly unprepared, I was at least ready to waive off the situation which I had faced numerous times during his training.

After a few minutes of waiving out foreign thoughts and preventing intrusions, Lord Greengrass apparently satisfied, receded from the chambers of my mind. It was painful, as my head throbbed and I could feel sweat dripping down my forehead, but I had to look strong in front of my enemy. A few seconds of silent inspection from him and I was patiently waiting for his words.

"Leave me."

"Thank you for the lesson, Lord Greengrass." I bowed while saying and started to walk out, keeping in mind to walk properly, out of the room and slowly closed the door to his study.

As soon as I closed the door, I did my usual ritual of standing still outside the closed door and started panting and taking breaths heavily. It was pure torture, I knew it. Every time I entered this room, I felt drained and exploited, the person in the study wasn't my father who would give motivations when I failed and acknowledgments when I succeeded, no the man in the study was my Lord, with me being a minor in age, had all the powers over me, who only wanted to fulfil his wishes and would go to every length to make those come true. I had no delusions in my mind, if the man ever thought that I was no longer useful to him, he could just easily disown me from the house and could even kill me while illusioning it as an accident. Truth is, he had no pride in my accomplishments nor any sorrow at my failures, the only way he saw me was as a tool to fulfil his wishes. As a knife to both lather butter on his toast and to cut open vegetable and meat when needed.

But despite all this he _knew_ , I _had to_ obey his every command, else any dissatisfaction on his part will be exploited in the form of _my only weakness_.

 **XXXXX**

After a trip to the bathroom in my room to wash my face with water and to wipe the sweat on the forehead, I changed into my designated sleepwear and slowly climbed over to my bed. Finding Daphne already there, covered in blanket and sleeping soundly, probably with all the exhaustion from the dance class, my hand trembled, not wanting to disturb her, but I had to do it, at least for her safety. I slowly shook her shoulder, attempting to wake her up.

She groggily opened and locked her blue eyes with my green ones.

"Is it time?" She quietly said and I simply nodded.

"Remember, clear your mind of any thought and just focus on the intrusion." I said and slowly, subtly and almost painlessly entered Daphne's mind. Focusing some small blasts in the shields and testing the reaction time, I proceeded to give a few pointers.

After feeling somewhat satisfied by her shields at the moment, I projected my thoughts on her mind.

' _I am going in from the centre'_

' _Okay'_

Feeling the centre of her shields weaken, I focused simultaneous blasts on the sides of the shields to divert her attention and pain, while slowly creating a needle sized hole in the centre of her shields. With that, I slowly started entering and accessing her memories.

I felt her hand painfully constricting mine, but I continued on. She knew that if it was getting too painful, she could just look away and I wouldn't mind, but she endured it both for herself and for me.

Trust. Trust was considered crucial between a teacher and a student of mind art, and trust is what we both had in spades for each other. Accessing her memories, I didn't delve deep, just proceeded to flash what had happened in her dance class today in her mind. Truth is I could have easily delved deeper to find any, if not all secrets, but I didn't because there wasn't any. We had nothing to hide from each other, we trusted each other explicitly, we shared whatever we knew with one another and we knew if there was someone who would understand us, it was the other one.

Receding my magic from the depths of her mind, I reached the shields and helped her to make the shield again in pristine condition again and slowly exited her mind and looked away from her eyes.

Finding her holding her head, I placed my hand on her temple and proceeded to massage them.

"Daphne, it will be okay. Sleep peacefully." I said as she turned my side and placed the back of her head on my shoulder while I was massaging her forehead.

The legilimency and occlumency exercise we just had, wasn't needed, but we both understood it was necessary. Lord Greengrass had from the time we had gained some maturity said that he would spare no time for Daphne. He had declared that he had no use for her and she was the unwanted one in this family. So, he would spare no look at her, spare no time for her, wouldn't hear any of her pleas and she was ultimately the _discarded one._

Due to such a lack of attention from him, she tried to strive harder, did tasks meant for me, even before I had finished, completed my calligraphy assignment even better than me but Lord Greengrass didn't even acknowledge her presence. It was only after I had started playing with her and sharing whatever Lord Greengrass had taught me with her, he acknowledged her presence, by severely beating me in front of her.

She cried, oh, she cried, while I screamed while trying to hold a strong face in front of her, but he didn't stop and slapped me even harder to _educate_ me about what would happen to me if I shared any more information and knowledge with her and _educate_ her about what punishment I have to face, if she continued to associate herself with me. Coincidently, it was also the day she did her first bout of accidental magic. She materialised a spherical shield in front of my body, so as to stop Lord Greengrass' hand from reaching me.

After that day, he beat me a few times more though when I shared some knowledge with her but later when he realised that I would not stop myself from associating myself and sharing whatever he taught me with her, he somewhat accepted her presence. Though he allowed me to teach her, allowed her the access to the family library and even set up classes so as to properly train the _heiress_ of the house, he strictly stated that he would take no direct involvement in her teachings.

It was only in the recent years, that he acknowledged her as the _heiress_ of the house and had allowed her to sometimes attend whatever he was teaching me. But he didn't necessarily look at her and acknowledged her like the daughter she was, but more or less that of a worker or subordinate to him.

He would at any random time, bump upon her occlumency shields and proceed to test, break and extract any information from her mind, leaving her in tremendous pain and only after feeling either bored or satisfied would leave her mind's premises. So, to save her from this painful exercise, I took matters into my own hand. Every night, I would proceed to teach her of the little occlumency I learned and experienced. I would painlessly intrude her mind's premises while simultaneously increasing my legilimency skills and her occlumency skills. And it was working. The human body was peculiar and what didn't kill us, made us stronger. My repeated invasion of her mind, made her body to adapt to the intrusion and due to her studying about occlumency from the library and my intrusions, her occlumency shields ever stronger than ever. Still, it was not of much use against a skilled legilimency artist like my father, but it was still work in progress.

In Lord Greengrass' eyes, Daphne was unnecessary for his wishes and dreams to be fulfilled.

But in my eyes, she was my most precious person.

She has endured all the pain, all the suffering together with me. After I saw her taking same classes as me and taking same punishments as me, I begged her to stop, I had no choice but to be the heir but she had. She could live her life the way she wanted, and unless she embarrassed the family in any manner, Lord Greengrass wouldn't bat an eyelash at her and her behaviour. She has the choice to stop being the _heiress of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass,_ but she didn't. She chose this life because of me.

She even researched and created pain relieving and quick healing potions from the Greengrass library for me when I would get be in much pain, but she refused to budge. She chose to suffer.

She chose to suffer _with me._ She chose to suffer _along and beside me._

I knew she was mentally scared because of the _less than normal_ childhood that we had. We had become more mature because of our sufferings, but I had an excuse, I was reincarnated, I had faced, grew up and had experienced a childhood before. What was hers? Nothing. She was just a normal child, who was in peril and was faced to mature way too fast.

But she had me beside her like I had her. She was my biggest strength.

I knew it. She knew it. And also, unfortunately, Lord Greengrass knew it.

Being the Lord of the house, we were currently minors in, he had all the power above us. He had all the power over Daphne and so, he _had all the power over me._ He had turned what was my greatest strength into my greatest weakness. If I refused to comply and follow his demands, he could do whatever he wanted to Daphne.

He could disown her from the family, making her social status in the wizarding world just above muggleborns.

He could betroth her to anyone, _anyone_ if he so desired. The lowest of scums and Daphne would be forced to marry him.

Or worse, he could just _lend_ her, to anyone. For money, he could give her to some low-life, scummy, bastards for a night and they could do _whatever they wanted_ to her.

While, I was sure he wouldn't do any of these to Daphne because she was also the heiress of the house and doing so will destroy his reputation in ICW, making him to lose his job and would slander the Greengrass family name, he so desired to elevate, it was the power, the power he had on us by which he _could_ do it, terrified me.

I knew it. She knew it. And most unfortunately Lord Greengrass knew it, that Daphne was also my biggest weakness. My Achilles heel.

I removed my hand from her head when I felt her form go slack on my shoulder and gently kissed on her forehead and turned my head towards the ceiling of my room.

Truth is I was still the pragmatic and manipulative child I once was in my previous life, but I was mistaken. I hadn't interacted much with the world than my fellow orphans, matron and teachers in school, so in my limited territory, I thought that I was the king, but in reality, I wasn't.

Here, my opponent was my father, and given my circumstances, I couldn't even hope to try to outsmart or even manipulate him. He had much more power over me. I couldn't manipulate or scheme against the man when he could just read it straight off my brain. It was useless. The only salvation was that I had been able to successfully store all the information regarding Voldemort, Harry Potter or my reincarnation in the deepest recesses of my mind, covered with an additional shield, that unless he went specifically searching for those, they would remain undiscovered.

But I wasn't sitting idly, I was accumulating power, I was studying, practising, applying and gaining knowledge every day, each passing day, made me somewhat stronger, smarter and when the right time and circumstance would come, I would overthrow him with the same power and knowledge he so desired me to have. But for now, I will learn, I will obey and I will persevere.

Power. Power is what ran this world, power was the blood and fuels of this society. Voldemort wasn't wrong when he said that there was no good and evil, the only thing that mattered was power and those who were too weak to obtain it.

Speaking of Voldemort, I often found it odd in some fanfictions in my previous life, that a 12-year-old protagonist would figure out the anagram of his real name, while in the politics-oriented society, with every major family having several spies to dig out any discriminatory information about other families, couldn't figure out the anagram or what had happened to a fellow Hogwarts student. The protagonist would then proceed to spread the knowledge that he is, in reality, Tom Riddle, a half-blood and all the 'Dark' alliances would be broken and Voldemort would lose all allies and such. But in reality, the truth couldn't be farther from that.

In the real world, everyone knew who he was and what he was. But he had something which this society wanted and desired – Power. Why would an heir from several centuries old pureblood house matter when a _half-blood_ could destroy him in seconds? Power is also what if Lily Evans was alive, help her be some-what respected in the society, because despite being _muggleborn_ , she had power. Dumbledore was also a half-blood but was equally respected and feared and was awarded multiple titles because he had what was needed in this society – Power. Power made people _listen._ Power made people _follow._ Power made people _respect._ Power made people _fear._

The only reason purebloods were more respected and favoured was also due to power. If not from the children, more so than the family treasures. The older the families, the older they had stayed and cultivated in magic and the more spells or knowledge they have in their family grimoires. In this power-hungry society, accumulating power and becoming powerful is all that mattered.

So, that is also the reason why pureblood children were taught occlumency, so that family spells and knowledge could not be exploited from the recesses of their minds.

That is the reason why I let Lord Greengrass invade my mind repeatedly. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger and once I had mastered occlumency and I have access to family grimoires. I can have the power necessary to oppose him.

I was a survivor and so I will survive this suffering.

I once read somewhere that – 'In a war, There Are No Winners Only Losers, just survivors that live to talk about it is all.'

I have learned, only the ones with power can make the rules here. Only the ones with power _can_ rule here.

I knew war was on the horizon and it was coming in a few years of time, so I have to strive and persevere to obtain the only thing crucial to mine and Daphne's safety and survival - Power.

I will endure all the necessary torture, all the pain and all the suffering. I know Lord Greengrass is only the closest enemy I can see now, but farther down the line, there are more, much more powerful and deadly people I have to face. But even if I fall down once, even if I lose once, I will grow stronger because of it.

Because,

 _What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger._

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: Looking for a beta, if interested PM me.**

 **The tone of the fic will neither be dark or light, it will be** _ **neutral grey**_

 **I know in this chapter, there was much of the MC's past and info dump and less of interactions but believe me, it was necessary and will not in coming in later chapters. The MC will live in the present and all the interactions will be henceforth in upcoming chapters. And yes, Adrian is the only character from past reincarnated.**

 **I often find it odd in some fics, that a baby just born would have a perfectly developed brain, perfect vision to recognise parents and perfect memory. Truly, I ask you, do you remember everything since birth? Do you remember the taste of milk from when you first sucked it? Do you remember the feeling when you soiled yourself? Do you remember saying your first word? Do you remember how to stand for the first time on your legs? The truth is no, a baby's brain takes time to fully develop and with another set of memories implanted in the baby's brain, the brain should rightfully burst. And here I come across fics which make world domination plans from the moment they open their eyes (Just kidding I love the fics, especially A World Full of Monsters by Fahad09) …**

 **Since Daphne is a Greek name meaning Victory and the rest of the names of Greengrass family in canon isn't given, I decided the family names to be of Greek origin; Adrian means Wealthy, Adrianna is Rich and Eugene is Lucky.**

 **The idea of Eugene Greengrass is inspired by Nathaniel Greengrass in the Harry Potter and the Gift of Memories by The Engulfing Silence.**

 **All suggestions, reviews, criticism, remarks are welcome. Share with me what you think in the reviews.**

 **Also, I am a novice writer, to all the visitors, even if you don't like the story, at least give me a suggestion in reviews on how I could improve myself and why you are not interested in the story.**

* * *

 **First written on 2nd April 2018  
** **Edited on 3rd April 2018 – Minor grammatical tweaks**


	2. Promises and Plans

**What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger**

 **Disclaimer** **: I do not own Harry Potter universe nor its characters. Familiar characters and references you see here belong to their respected authors and owners. The authors will be mentioned below so as to ensure that they are well credited and recognised.**

 **All suggestions, reviews, criticism, remarks are welcome. Let's get this thing going.**

 **Also, I am a novice writer, to all the visitors, even if you don't like the story, at least give me a suggestion in reviews on how I could improve myself and why you are not interested in the story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Promises and Plans**

Daphne's internal clock woke her up at the break of dawn. She slowly opened her sharp icy blue eyes and the first thing she noticed like the majority of days, was the absence of Adrian's presence beside her. Observing the small cluster of sun rays entering the dark room through the window and knowing where he was at the moment, she shrugged off the blanket off her body, embracing the cold November morning weather and decided to completely wake up to do her self-appointed and designated duties. Rising her back and sitting on the bed, her eyes took the moment to scan her surroundings and promptly softened a bit as it gazed at the photo facing the bed.

Truth is she didn't remember much of her infanthood, much less about her mother and this photo was the only opportunity to know how her mother looked. She had to say, her mother looked exceptionally beautiful, even in her weakened state when this photo was taken, especially with the bright blond hair and bright green eyes. Daphne could only hope to look half as pretty as her mother with the blue eyes from Lord Greengrass and the bright blond hair from her mother.

Since speaking about her late mother was forbidden in her home, especially in presence of Lord Greengrass, the only minute, bits and bits of information she knew about her mother, were from when her mother's friends visited their home. Though their visits were much less frequent now than they were in her childhood, they were her only hope about discovering about her mother. Her mother, Daphne discovered, had been the exact polar opposite of what Lord Greengrass is now. Her mother had been caring, even helping her enemies when they were injured, a pacifist, to never initiate fights over pity and childish reasons, had been understanding, of others' problems and had been overall a pretty positive and cheerful person.

Despite being the heiress of an old pureblood family, her mother's friends commented that Adrianna acted anything but. She was as open-minded as they get, very friendly, never to shy away from making new friends and spending time and effort to maintain and improve her friendships. A verified genius herself, at least in the field of spell creation, she always sought out methods to improve herself with the help from her friends and helping her friends when they needed her help. In this dark, desolate, power-hungry society, perhaps she was the only one without some ulterior motives. She was like the only shining star among the vast dark space.

And in one corner of Daphne's mind, perhaps being like her mother was what she desired, but she knew, it was never possible, at least not, not anymore, given her circumstances. Now that she had matured a bit and was starting to see the surroundings for what it was, she realized what kind of world and society she lived in. Here, everyone was a predator, a wolf, who even in the slightest sign of weakness would sprint to feast upon you. If you run from it, it would chase after you, till either you slowed down or the wolf got tired. But even if the wolf got tired, it wouldn't matter much, for once, after resting, it would be back, back after you, chasing you till it gashes you with its claws. Perhaps the only apt motto of this world, Daphne decided, was to become more powerful and never show any weakness.

Daphne, giving a last look at the photo in front of her, in Adrian's room, took off her legs from the bed and landed them on the soft mattress on the floor. Slowly, gracefully and methodically, she started to walk away from Adrian's room to her room which was just the one on the neighbouring left of his.

Reaching the door to her room, Daphne twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

Her room while much smaller than Adrian's looked much livelier than his. Perhaps it was the lack of useless trinkets whose only purpose was to impress the guests, the lack of useless moving scenic portraits which was used to distract the guests or the much livelier yellow wallpapered walls as opposed to his brown and green ones. Daphne preferred hers more than that oversized pompous one.

Her room was small and simple, with a bed in one corner of the room, a closet and a small study table on the other side and the door to her bathroom, adjacent to the closet. Perhaps the only anomaly in the room was the presence of the table with a few cauldrons, beakers, burners, stirrers and other potion making accessories accompanied by her personal journal and notebook opposite to her bed. A few feet beside the table was a glass shelf, enchanted with the stasis charm, holding various ingredients used to make potions, and several beakers and test tubes filled with various coloured liquids.

Since she had discovered her hidden talent and passion of making potions, probably stemmed from making various potions for Adrian when he was injured, she had decided to practice and become more proficient in it. Since she felt that this was the only way she could be of any help to him.

Deciding to take a shower, Daphne started to walk towards her clothes closet. While walking, her gaze fell on the ordinary looking brown book sitting on her study table. It wasn't just any normal book, no, at least not to her, to her, it was one of her most prized possessions ever. It belonged to her mother and was her personal journal. Finding it had been an accident, as one day as she was just browsing through the books in the family library, and at the end of a particular shelf, she found this plain, inconspicuous looking brown book. Opening it, at the first page she could read none but one word – _Adrianna._

This particular journal was where her mother wrote and indexed all the spells created by her. While Daphne could open the book and read her mother's handwritten texts, she couldn't understand any of it. It was not much surprising since, it was her mother's own personal spells and perhaps she didn't want anyone but her trusted ones to look at it, so she encrypted the text. It was still frustrating to Daphne that while she only had a single possession from her mother, she couldn't understand what was written in it.

Daphne had shown that particular book even to her mother's friends when they came over and even dropped a few drops of her blood on the book, as suggested by Adrian, but still couldn't break the code. Since the only way you open an encrypted text was to obtain and use the key, which she didn't have, she took discovering her mother's text as one of her personal missions. Every day, Daphne would sit in front of the book and try different combinations of letters to decrypt the text, but wasn't successful so far, but she had promised herself that she would successfully decrypt that one day and continue her mother's legacy of spell creation. But now, she took solace in the fact that she could at least touch something, which her mother had touched before.

Inwardly chuckling, Daphne wondered how funny and sad it was that the proof of her mother's existence in this world was just a few journals written by her, memories from the friends she made at Hogwarts and the blood flowing through Adrian's and her body.

Slightly shaking her head, Daphne put stop to that line of thought and reaching her destination, pulled the handles to open the closet.

Inside were various coloured dresses, corsets, gowns, night-wares and various other formal and casual clothes. Truth is she didn't have many clothes before and the only dresses she had were presents from her mother's friends when they visited over. These clothes were only recent acquisitions, as only in recent years as Lord Greengrass had allowed her to be trained as the heiress, he one day, just barged in her room, dumped all the new clothes in her closet and went out, ordering her to be at least presentable as a representative of the house.

Daphne scurrying among her numerous clothes delicately took out a rather pretty blue and silver dress from the closet. This was another of the few precious possessions she had obtained in her small life. Last Christmas, even though the festival was not practised in her home, she had found this particular gift on her bed. She didn't know, from where Adrian had obtained this item since going outside of the home's vicinity without Lord Greengrass was forbidden but she was nonetheless grateful to him. The feeling when she climbed out of Adrian's bed to go to her room and reaching it, finding a packaged present addressed to her on her bed, opening it and after a few moments later realising from whom it was and then running back to his room to find him standing with an amused smile on his face was wondrous.

At one time in her childhood she hated Adrian, she really did. After all, it was natural to hate the person because of who your entire existence was fated to be cursed.

In a noble house, only the _eldest_ was considered the heir if male, or heiress if female and the second child had no use in the overall politicking of that particular house. Lord Greengrass had, from as far as she could remember, made it clear that he would educate and pay attention to only the heir of the house, only the heir, and for the other he had no use of and was worthless in his eyes. To show Lord Greengrass, _her father_ , that she wasn't worthless, she would spy on their sessions and after learning what the _heir_ was supposed to do for tomorrow, would run to finish that assignment faster than him and better than him to show _her father_ that she wasn't worthless, that she too deserved love, love from her father. But her father continued to ignore her.

And after learning the circumstances of her birth, her hate intensified. Just because _her brother_ had been delivered before, he was the heir, if, if she had been discovered before, she would have been the heiress. Daphne hated it. That just because he was delivered before, her chance at life was doomed. She despised it. She hated the fates for making her being discovered later. She hated the doctors for delivering her after. She hated Adrian for being born and taking her chance away. She hated her mother for delivering both the babies and abandoning her. She hated Lord Greengrass for ignoring her presence and not giving her the love of a daughter. And most of all, she hated herself for being born in this cursed existence. She knew time would never heal these wounds and she would never get the attention of her father. She would have to live forever in the _heir's_ shadow. No one in the family loved her. Her existence was as despised as a house-elf.

And so, Daphne decided, there was no way she would allow herself to live in this cursed existence forever.

If something had to change, she had to do it _herself_.

She _had to_ become the heiress.

Since she wasn't born first, there was only one other way that the succession of the heir would be passed down to her.

And that was to kill the current heir.

She _had to_ do it, for her future.

And most of all,

She had to do it, for getting her father's attention and love.

She would kill the heir and become the heiress or die trying.

Taking the Adrian-gifted dress with her in the bathroom, Daphne slowly closed and locked the door and hanged the dress in a nearby hook beside the towel. Undressing, she piled her worn clothes in a nearby basket and activating the heating rune with her magic, stood in front of the shower head and let warm water cascade over her body.

In her idiotic and naïve childhood, she had tried, tried to kill Adrian. She couldn't fight him since he was bigger and taller than her, she couldn't cast a spell on him because she didn't know any magic, so she tried to do the deed subtly. Creating a poison from the worst things she could find, she hoped to poison him and become the heiress but was caught by the house-elves before she could do it. Daphne didn't know if the house-elves had told her father or not, but she still couldn't get any attention from him.

And since she couldn't find any other ways to kill him at that moment, she entered Adrian's room, climbed the book-shelf besides the door carrying the heaviest object her physical strength could hold and waited for him to arrive. And as soon as Adrian entered the door, she took no time to bash his head with the object.

He was bleeding, holding his hand over the injured area, bleeding, and at first, he was surprised by the sudden attack, but then his eyes softened as he looked over the culprit and asked,

" _Why?"_

Why, why, he dared to ask? Here she was trying to murder him and he didn't even know why? No, that won't do. And so, she neared her kneeling and injured _brother_ and replied,

" _Why? Why? Because of you, I have to live in this cursed existence! Because of you, I will never get father's love! All! Because! Of! You!"_

She ranted and raved, pouring all her suppressed emotions collected over the years and worst of all he _listened_ , he listened as she cursed their mother, cursed him and cursed her own life, he _listened_.

She didn't even know when she started banging and beating her hands over his chest with tears rolling out of her eyes.

And after she had finished ranting, she looked at him, his wound slowly healing thanks to latent magic in the body, daring him to say something, _anything,_ and so he spoke and _she listened._

Daphne listened as he spoke about his end of the spectrum, about his life and about his struggles.

As he showed her his hand with engorged veins and back with purple bruises, and she realised.

Attention from Lord Greengrass wasn't love, it was pure curse.

But still, wary of his words and seeing the scene in front of her, the little girl in her mind wanted, wanted her father's attention and so Adrian agreed.

Agreed to teach her. Agreed to play with her. And agreed to help her.

Expecting nothing in return. Expecting no rewards. Just to make her happy.

But Lord Greengrass wasn't of similar mind.

He lashed at Adrian, in front of her and there she was, able to do _nothing_ to stop him. In a desperate attempt, she materialised the shield in front of him, and at moment Daphne didn't know what was going on Lord Greengrass' mind, but with a single glance at her, he left the injured Adrian on the floor and walked away.

Shaking, Daphne helped Adrian to move into her room and started to wipe the blood off his wounds with a clean cloth.

While doing so, she understood. She understood, all this happened because of her. All these happened because Adrian _agreed._

Agreed to teach her. Agreed to play with her. And agreed to help her.

Regretting her decision, Daphne was about to vow to never be in presence of him again and then she looked into his eyes and heard him say,

" _No secrets or lies between us. Ever."_

And Daphne agreed. She heard him promise that he would make Lord Greengrass acknowledge her, and when she was about to say that there was no need for that, a look in his eyes full of resolve stopped her.

And so, a few months later, he fulfilled his promise and every time when he arrived injured, Daphne was there, to heal him, to support him and to say that all these pain, all these efforts, she wasn't worth it.

He was and forever would be the heir, and the second child was trained only in case if the first-born died. But she didn't want it. She no longer wanted to be the heiress. She just wanted to be beside Adrian. Even with her status as an heiress in the house, for the outside world, it wouldn't matter. There could be only one heir or heiress and Daphne knew Adrian wasn't doing this for the outside world. He was just doing it for her because for the training of heiress Lord Greengrass _had to_ look at her. Had to _acknowledge_ her.

And later, when Lord Greengrass had started training her besides Adrian, as the heiress of the house, in case. Daphne was happy. Happy not because of that her father had finally acknowledged her presence but because she was _with_ Adrian. _Besides_ Adrian.

In every wound, in every injury, she and Adrian were together. She practised potion making to help him when he was injured, and he supported her by teaching her occlumency after being attacked by Lord Greengrass.

And so slowly, slowly as the years passed, Daphne realised. The fates weren't cruel when two children were born in one womb. When they had lived together for nine months and shared everything including food, water and magic. No, Daphne realised, the twins were meant to be one and so will be. She would support Adrian like she supported her. He was her biggest strength as she was his.

It is said that a person is only as strong as his biggest weakness, and Daphne would become strong. So as to no longer hinder him. So as to be able to support him. So as to able to fight along and beside him.

And that was a promise.

Turning the shower off, Daphne dried herself using the towel and put on her dress. Exiting the bathroom, she moved towards the potion table to do what she had wanted to do.

 _Support Adrian._

 **XXXXX**

Adrian ran.

Farther and farther into the green meadows, he ran.

There was no one before and after him, but Adrian still ran.

Breathing heavily and feeling a burning sensation in his lungs and legs, he still ran.

Not a lot had changed since he attained the age of nine years and seven months.

Stopping at quite a distance from the house, Adrian closed his eyes to scanned the area to check if there was any recording device or charm in his vicinity. Finding none, he somewhat relaxed and took out a charmed pouch from the pocket of his pants. Opening the pouch, Adrian removed a rather simple sword from it.

Gripping the sword in his hand, he twirled it around and started to stab and slash the air around him while keeping in mind of his surroundings.

The Greengrass manor was rather isolated from the world. With the single mansion in the centre, all its surroundings were just green meadows and rather large trees. And whenever Adrian ventured far away in a particular direction, he was greeted by a dense white fog which threatened to go deeper and deeper and he wasn't prepared to go into such an unknown location without any additional information.

Even after living here, in the mansion all his life, he didn't know where in the world was it located. It could be in England, it could be in any other part of the world or could be in a different plane of existence altogether, Adrian didn't know.

Stopping for a bit and wiping the sweat from his forehead with his long sleeve, Adrian put the sword back in the pouch and secured the pouch back in his pocket. After that, once again scanning his environment for any spectators, Adrian reached a nearby tree and started to punch its bark.

Since Greengrass manor had no threat of any outside interference, all the secrecy he was minding was for the people inside the manor, or specifically for Lord Greengrass.

In recent months, Adrian thought, how was he supposed to defeat these people? All these people with more power, more magic and more spells, how would he be able to compete? And the answer appeared before him when he was out last year with his mother's friend, after getting permission from Lord Greengrass, in Diagon Alley to buy Daphne a present.

In a novelty shop, his eyes fell upon this particular sword and Adrian wondered, how surprising it would be that while fighting, when the opponent was expecting a spell from his wand, he would get close and stab the person with his sword.

The sword he was currently carrying, was pretty simple. Since it was from a novelty store, and were only meant to hang as a decoration, the sword didn't have much sharp edges but it was the best he could do at the moment. The sword wasn't capable of harming any one at the moment, but it was just for practise till he obtained a better one.

Since magical Britain didn't encourage fighting with fists or swords than wands, and he couldn't venture out to other places to find a better sword, this was the best he could do at the moment. The same was the case with a trainer for sword fighting. He had to practise it alone, in secrecy because he didn't want to go to Lord Greengrass requesting a trainer and lose his element of surprise.

And so, Adrian practised, swinging the sword in the air and beating the tree with his fists till they became bloodied, he practised. He knew that it his fighting style was pretty basic, but it was still better than nothing.

A few moments later, Adrian stopped hitting the bark and quickly wore some fingerless gloves over his fist, to hide his recent injures, in case, just in case, Lord Greengrass woke up early and expected to see him.

Jogging to the door of the mansion, Adrian entered it and as usual found Daphne standing there, waiting for him with a potion in her hand.

Muttering a quick "Thanks" to her, Adrian took the test tube from her hands. Chugging down the fresh made rejuvenating potion down his throat, he handed the container back to her and they started walking back to his room together.

Daphne had changed much in the recent years. She was not the care-free nine-year child she was supposed to be and one just had to look into her eyes to find that out. The once clear sapphire eyes had turned into emotionless and guarded icy blue ones. Daphne no longer identified Lord Greengrass as her father and behaved in front of him as such. She had become quite emotionless in front of strangers and had become quite mis-trustful and wary of them. Of course, there's also the fact that she had become rather over-protective and clingy to him recently and wouldn't sleep anywhere but besides him. It wasn't like she _couldn't_ sleep without him, it was just that she _didn't want_ to sleep without him.

But looking in her room was perhaps the easiest way to determine what was her heart subconsciously wanted. Thick walls outside but a lively yellow colour inside, Daphne wanted nothing more than to be loved, the lively little girl hidden by the thick, solid walls erected by the suffering from her childhood.

"Adrian?" Daphne said and looked at him as he was lost in his thoughts.

And once reaching his room, Daphne wasted no time to shove him in and closing the door behind them. Taking his hands in hers and removing the gloves from them, she took no time to look over his injuries.

Adrian. Thinking of which, wasn't that what she always called him? He couldn't think of a time when he heard her regard him as her _big brother_. Perhaps it was natural, earlier she had considered him as a rival and now perhaps she regarded him as a partner or best friend. In the shared suffering of their childhood, perhaps their bond had evolved, and she no longer wanted some big brother to dote on her, she probably wanted some one who could understand her, someone with her, someone equal and he was honoured to provide that cherished bond to her.

Adrian looked towards Daphne as she used a beginner healing spell using the trainer wand and applied her personal made healing salve over his injuries, _concern clearly visible_ in her _clear_ , blue eyes. Nowadays, he was the only one in front of whom, she wasn't emotionless. He was the only one with whom she wasn't guarded. He was the only one with whom Daphne could be herself.

Adrian slowly took his hands away from hers and placing them on the back of her head, and pulled Daphne closer. Kissing her forehead slowly, Adrian reinforced his once made promise.

He would forever and ever support and love her.

 _Like a big brother loved his little sister._

 **XXXXX**

Adrian and Daphne were discussing and studying magical and spell theories, when a house-elf informed them that Lord Greengrass was waiting for them at the table for breakfast. Finding it odd since Lord Greengrass never had breakfast or lunch with them, they shared a look but still started to walk towards the dining room to not anger the Lord.

Reaching the table and finding Lord Greengrass already sitting there, they bowed to him first and took their respective places on the table. Finding their usual breakfast laid before them on the table and glancing at the Lord of the house who had started eating his breakfast, they too followed his example and dug into theirs.

In the middle of their meal, Adrian heard Lord Greengrass clear his throat and like Daphne, turned to look at him and hear what he had to address.

"Adrian, you are to come with me this afternoon."

Adrian felt his hand gripped below the table and he replied,

"Is there any particular occasion, my Lord?"

He noticed Lord Greengrass looking in his eyes with an unrecognisable emotion, perhaps anger because he had the _gall_ to question the lord, but nonetheless after a few seconds, heard him reply,

"The ICW has a formal gathering tonight and you are to accompany me." Noticing them not saying anything, Lord Greengrass continued, "And this afternoon you are to come with me to get some appropriate apparels for the occasion."

Adrian noticing that Lord Greengrass was waiting for his response, slightly bowed toward him and replied,

"It would be my honour Lord Greengrass."

Apparently satisfied, Lord Greengrass stood up from his seat and started to walk towards his room.

Adrian noticed his hand still gripped by Daphne, looked towards her and locked his eyes with hers.

" _Are you going to be okay?"_ Adrian heard Daphne's thought in his mind. Replying quickly, he delivered his thoughts to her,

" _Yes, I will manage, but what about you? You will be alone in the house for the night till we get back."_

Legilimency, in barest definition, was reading one's mind. But one of the other obscure way legilimency could be used was to insert your thoughts into another's minds and overlap them with their own native ones, making the other person think that the foreign though was the product of their own mind. Reading and manipulating minds was the power of legilimency.

While Daphne wasn't as skilled in the art as perhaps Adrian was, he had taught her enough so that they could have their own private conversations among others. The only downside of this particular use was that to convey their thought to one another, they always, _had to_ , maintain continuous eye contact.

" _It will be okay, I know how to protect myself and if any dire situation arises, I can call the house-elves."_

" _But still, keep the trainer wand always with you and stay in my room with the door locked till I return."_

Adrian felt something of a mental nod from Daphne and heard her speak back,

" _But what about you? You will be alone with that man, outside. What if he does something to you?"_

Adrian took his still gripped hand from her hold and squeezed her hand,

" _Daphne, you know, that given the… circumstances, I am more valuable to him alive and uninjured. I don't think he would make any attacks on me."_

Adrian recognising the signs of another argument from her, broke eye contact with Daphne. Putting his free hand on her shoulder, in the most confident voice, he said,

"It will be okay, I will be back before you know it. I promise."

And Daphne couldn't argue with him. He had a knack for fulfilling promises after all. And so, she believed him. She really did.

 **XXXXX**

Arriving to the destination with the help of a pentagon shaped portkey, Adrian stumbled a bit to control his balance. It had been his first time travelling with the help of a portkey and he had to say, feeling a tugging sensation behind his navel and swirling and swirling was not going to be on the list of his favourite sensations anytime soon.

After a few seconds of stabilising his body, Adrian looked at Lord Greengrass who was waiting for him a few steps ahead, and so he walked towards him and waited for his instructions.

Lord Greengrass apparently bored of watching him making a fool of himself, looked into his eyes and said,

"I hope you will not embarrass me or the house any further."

Even though it sounded like a suggestion, Adrian knew what Lord Greengrass said was nothing short of an order and threat.

"And remember to be on your best behaviour."

With that Lord Greengrass started walking towards the main hall and Adrian following his steps, walked besides him.

While walking, Adrian allowed his eyes to gaze upon the venue there currently were in.

The whole area was a castle, or at least looked like one from the inside. It reminded Adrian of the Hogwarts caste but the similarities ended with just the structure. This particular castle had sentries located every two feet and had several visible runes and wards enchanted on its walls. Adrian despite his limited knowledge in runes could identify several common ones such as warming rune, probably to counter the freezing weather outside, anti-apparition rune and opacity rune, to prevent anyone to look inside the walls and prevent x-ray vision.

The ICW, or International Confederation of Wizards was a wizarding inter-governmental organisation, roughly equivalent to the United Nations in Adrian's previous life and held a very high level of influence in the wizarding world overall. They had a strong, authoritative presence within all matters of international magical cooperation and were primarily responsible of promoting peace, security, and cooperation. Since, it was an international organisation, every major magical country had a delegation which worked in the ICW, so that any of the laws passed weren't unjust to any of the citizens of that particular country.

Since the ICW was founded around 1689 **(1)** , every century or so, they had a party to celebrate it. This year 1989, marked the 300 years since the establishment of the ICW and such all the members were invited for the gathering. This year, the party was held in a place called Chateau located in Switzerland. It was an isolated island far, far above in the snowy hills and with the snowing stormy weather outside, travelling with the portkey provided was the only way to enter the castle.

Reaching the main hall with Lord Greengrass, Adrian wasn't surprised to find hundreds of people chattering with one another. Wearing different attires, the ensemble looked pretty colourful and Adrian took the moment to observe the guests.

Like Lord Greengrass was a representative from Great Britain, there were hundred more representatives from different countries attending this gathering. Representative from Luxemburg, the representative from China, the representative from America, the representative from France, the representative from India, the representative from Japan and various other countries were present there. And Adrian had to introduce him to them all.

 _Lucky him._

But what could he do at the moment? Nothing.

And so, Adrian dutifully followed Lord Greengrass everywhere as he greeted his fellow colleagues and introduced Adrian to them.

Adrian made sure to pay compliments and give respects to the strangers his father was introducing him to. He made sure to call the people with their appropriate titles as Lord Greengrass introduced him to them. Calling some Lord, some Mister or even in a particular case -sama, to the representative from Japan. Adrian made sure to endear them all. Shaking hands with some, bowing to some and kissing the back of the hands for others, Adrian made sure to make no mistakes.

And after an hour or so, of this unnecessary politicking (at least according to Adrian), Adrian and Lord Greengrass made their way to the biggest circle among all the groups present here. It was the circle with the Supreme Mugwump in it. It was time for him to introduce himself to Albus Dumbledore.

Greeting a few people on the way, Lord Greengrass made into the inner circle with Adrian where Dumbledore could be seen talking to some dignitaries from Scotland and so, he and Lord Greengrass waited to be noticed.

After a few moments, Adrian heard Dumbledore exclaim, "Eugene!" and so, Lord Greengrass made his way towards him with Adrian walking besides him.

"Dumbledore."

Adrian heard Lord Greengrass say and first he was shocked by the respect in his voice, while Adrian knew speaking respectfully with Dumbledore was a must, he didn't think Lord Greengrass would do that. Adrian didn't think Lord Greengrass was _capable_ of respecting others. Since Dumbledore was just a half-blood that too from a minor pureblood family, calling him Lord was out of the question. But still, a holder of three important titles deserved to be highly respected and such, Adrian bowed in front of Dumbledore and greeted him.

After being acknowledged by Dumbledore, Adrian stood beside his father and heard Dumbledore speak.

"Ah! Eugene, what did I say about being greeted like that? Don't you think your former professor deserves to be treated in a bit friendlier manner?"

"Dumbledore." Lord Greengrass insisted and so Dumbledore decided to forgo the point and turned his attention towards Adrian.

"And this would be you son, wouldn't he?" Dumbledore remarked and motioned Adrian to come towards him.

After a subtle glance at Lord Greengrass, Adrian made his way towards Dumbledore and stood beside him. Standing there, Adrian heard Lord Greengrass say,

"Yes, that would be Adrian Greengrass, my son and the heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass."

Noticing Dumbledore looking at him, Adrian turned his occlumency shields full force to obstruct any probes from entering and looked back at Dumbledore. There was no particular reason for such, but call it a particular paranoia originated from reading too many fanfictions in the previous life.

A few moments later, putting his hands, on Adrian's shoulders, Dumbledore looked back at Eugene and inquired,

"And he would be coming to Hogwarts, yes?"

"Yes, that is the current plan."

Adrian heard Lord Greengrass reply back and felt Dumbledore bending to speak something in his ears,

"You know, you don't have to involve yourselves in this politics and all. Perhaps you should enjoy your childhood the way you want. Don't you think so?"

"Ah... thank you sir." Adrian started awkwardly but Dumbledore gave no mind to that and stood straight.

Clapping his hands together, Dumbledore in a great show of magic, chanted some phony magical words like Abracadabra, gilly wup and sesame, opened his hands, and in the middle of his palm stood a candy in a purple wrapper.

Giving the candy to Adrian, Adrian once again respectfully bowed towards Dumbledore and after muttering a quick "Thank You Sir.", took the offered candy and once again stood beside his father.

Lord Greengrass giving Dumbledore a last nod, made his way away from that particular circle with Adrian following beside him.

Arriving just outside of the group, Adrian only had the time to secure the Dumbledore-given candy inside of his coat pocket when he heard another exclamation.

"Eugene!"

Adrian turned his head to find a trio of people moving towards them. While the other people had also turned their gazes toward the group, they couldn't particularly take their eyes off one of them.

A heavenly beauty, walking with the grace of a goddess, with silver-blonde hair and full assets, the woman walking towards them, was nothing short of a dream come true for most men.

As soon as she came particularly near him, Adrian could fell that everything had become high definition for him, the light just existing to shine upon this beauty and all. And after a few moments, Adrian felt annoyed, annoyed at falling prey to this particular trap.

Closing his eyes, Adrian arrived near the occlumency shields of his mind and as suspected, it was filled entirely with a shining, glittering gas like substance which was clouding his judgement and making his thoughts go wary. Rapidly clearing all the glittering substance from his mind, Adrian opened his eyes to discover that the people had come pretty close to them and so he stood still, waiting for them to come over and for his father to introduce them.

"Delacour." Lord Greengrass greeted as soon as the group stood before him.

"Ah! Eugene, you wound me, you really do. I still remember than young man who used to challenge me…" Delacour said in a heavily French-accented English. He was about to rant but a cough from Lord Greengrass stopped him. Smiling sheepishly, he turned his attention towards Adrian.

"Eugene! I didn't know, your son had grown up so much. And rather handsome too, but I guess that was to be expected from your genes. Why I remember when you were in Hogwarts…."

As he was about to rant again, Adrian bowed in front of him and spoke.

"You flatter me too much, Lord Delacour."

Flapping his hand around, I head Delacour speak, "Ah! No need for that Lord crap, you are my friend's son after all."

Turning towards Lord Greengrass, Adrian warily observed as Delacour elbowed Lord Greengrass in the chest and spoke, "Now, Eugene, don't you think you should introduce us?"

Lord Greengrass shot an annoyed look towards the man, but nonetheless, he looked at Adrian and started to speak, "The man in front of you is Monsieur Delacour and he is the French representative to the ICW. The one accompanying him is his wife Appoline Delacour and their daughter Fleur Delacour."

Lord Greengrass then took a few seconds to observe as Adrian shook Monsieur Delacour's hand and kissed the back of Appoline's and Fleur's hands.

After that, Lord Greengrass looked at Monsieur and continued speaking,

"And that is my son and heir, Adrian Greengrass."

Adrian gave them another bow and stood besides his father. Subtly glancing towards the girl, Fleur, as from the moment she arrived her, she had been giving him strange looks, but he ignored it. Hearing Monsieur speak, Adrian turned his attention towards the elder French.

"Ah! Now that introductions are over. Let us move out! Come with me Eugene, I wanted to introduce you to someone." Adrian watched as Lord Delacour proceeded to drag an annoyed Lord Greengrass with him and as Adrian was about to follow him, Lord Delacour turned his head towards him and addressed him,

"Adrian, why don't you spend time with Fleur while we get back."

And without hearing his response, Lord Greengrass and The Delacour couple left the group leaving him and Fleur there.

While they were leaving, Adrian couldn't help but notice how all the _experienced_ politicians in the room had directed their glassy eyed gaze towards Appoline Delacour. And so, Adrian wondered, perhaps _this_ was another reason why Lord Delacour was accompanied by Appoline than just to show-off.

"So… Adrian, right?" Adrian turned his head towards Fleur's slightly accented voice and found her staring at him awkwardly.

To find out the reason why she was staring at him this evening, he smoothly commented,

"You have questions for me."

"How did you…?"

At that moment, Adrian looked around, only to find the looks that were once directed towards Appoline, currently directed towards the girl in front of him. Adrian wondered, perhaps this was because of her mother's presence before and she had been more powerful, so the gazes were directed towards her and once she left, all the attention focused on Fleur.

Trying to save the girl from these hungry gazes of men perhaps triple her age, he looked at her and said,

"Come with me."

"Where?" Adrian heard her speak in a guarded tone, so he quickly replied back,

"Not too far away, just somewhere less crowded."

Adrian then walked forward, while giving the appropriate space to the girl behind him and arrived at the same hall way he had portkeyed into, earlier this evening.

Adrian observed the hallway which was currently surprisingly free of sentries and waited a few seconds for Fleur to catch up to him.

"So, what is it you wanted to ask me?" Adrian politely asked her as Fleur stood in front of him.

"Well… I didn't want to impose…." Fleur started, but Adrian snorted and replied back,

"When a person keeps staring at another person ever since their first contact…" Adrian slightly tilted his head, watching the girl get embarrassed, probably from getting caught, continued, "…there is bound to be a particular reason, don't you think so?"

Fleur, probably to shake off the embarrassment, shook her head a few times and looking towards Adrian replied,

"I just, I just wanted to know why you weren't affected by the allure?"

"Allure?"

Adrian inquired, he was sure what she was talking about, but it would never hurt to hear from her to be sure. And after Adrian inquired, he felt the glittery substance coming back all full waves towards him, threatening to take over his mind, but he didn't even let the substance's presence enter his mind's premises and started cleaning and repelling them.

A few moments later, Adrian realising, that Fleur was back at looking at him strangely, he teasingly commented,

"Aaaannd… you are back at staring."

Fleur, didn't look away this time and continued looking at him. On Adrian's part, he felt the glittering substance come back towards him now at twice the speed and force and had to travel to his mind's gates to actively participate in ward it off.

After a few seconds of silence, in which Fleur and Adrian were simply looking in each other's eyes, at least to the outside perspective, Adrian felt the substance started slowing down and so, he too stepped down from the premises of his mind and let his subconscious shields, do the rest of passive warding.

Apparently annoyed, Fleur crossed her arms over her chest and looking at him, commented,

"And you still didn't tell me how you are resisting the allure."

Adrian didn't shy away from her gaze and replied back,

"I might be able to say, if you told me what it was."

Fleur continued shooting him annoyed gazes and took a step towards him, invading his personal space and asked,

"What do you think of me?"

"W-What?"

Adrian shot back and subconsciously took a step backwards from the suddenly brunt girl in front of him. But Fleur continued walking forward.

"What do you feel when you look at me? What do you think about my appearance?"

And with that, Fleur stopped, with less than two feet of distance between them and looked at Adrian expectantly, waiting for his response.

Adrian on his part, decided to comply with the crazy girl's request and speculatively looked toward her. He had to say, she looked pretty good, with silver-blonde hair, blue eyes and a budding figure, and in a few years of time, Monsieur Delacour had to beat boys with sticks to stop them from admiring the girl. Tonight, Fleur had worn a particularly enchanting blue and silver dress which only added to enhance the beauty in front of him.

"And you are asking this only to boost your ego or what…" Adrian started to say, but stopped when he noticed that the girl was not amused by his response and so with a sigh, replied truthfully,

"Well, you are pretty."

"And?" Fleur insisted.

"And what? Madame are looking particularly enchanting tonight. Thank you for letting this commoner gaze upon your majestic presence." Adrian replied back with a rather sarcastic tone when he saw that the girl wouldn't leave this topic aside.

Fleur deciding that the conversation wasn't of much use, with a sigh, un-crossed her hands and asked him,

"Do you know what a Veela is?"

"Ah, yes, yes I do." Adrian nodded and replied back, he had read about them in a book attributed to magical creatures.

Veela's were rather interesting creatures. They were a race comprised mostly of females, and to attract _mates_ towards them and continue their population, their body adapted to produce _allure_ to enchant and seduce males. But of course, it had some rather adverse effects, that instead of just being able to direct one male, the allure spread across to attract every male in the vicinity, and hence every male wanted a piece of them. So, to counter this particular threat, their body adapted yet again, making the Veelas able to manipulate and produce fire for self-protection. It is also rumoured that some pure-blooded veelas, had the ability to sprout wings and fly, but it wasn't documented. Sadly, Veelas like all other magical creatures like vampires and werewolves faced extreme prejudices and some of the hardcore extremists preferred hunting to exterminate them and were almost extinct nowadays.

Shaking his head to clear out his thoughts about the total bullshit pureblood dogmatism in the world, Adrian turned to look towards Fleur who had begun to start speaking,

"Then you must have noticed how the males were behaving in presence of my mother."

Seeing him, giving a small nod, Fleur continued,

"That is the work of her allure. Allure makes the bearer endearing to the opposite gender."

Fleur then turned her surprisingly sharp gaze towards him,

"And you still haven't told me how you can resist the allure. Because as far as I know, there are only two ways to be immune to one…" She then waited a few moments to glace at him up and down and continued,

"…. Either the allure doesn't affect the males who haven't mature yet or… you might swing the other way."

Adrian chuckled a bit and replied,

"I assure you Miss Delacour that I definitely don't swing the other way, and as far as maturity is concerned, I have matured enough to at least admire and notice the female beauty." A few seconds of exaggeratedly looking over her body, he continued, "And I believe, I have already commented on the fact that you are looking very beautiful this evening."

Fleur amused by his words, fell silent and a comfortable silence reigned upon the area.

Naturally, Adrian had to break it.

"I have to say, Miss Delacour, that dress only exists to enhance your natural beauty."

Fleur looked amused by his words and comfortable by his presence, replied back,

"And that dress robes suit you too. And please, call me Fleur."

"You think so?" Adrian replied as he looked over his dress. His robes were dark green in colour with black accented borders and accompanying the upper robe was similarly designed black pants. They were among the clothes, Lord Greengrass had bought him this afternoon from a rather peculiar shop in Wales. With his speculation over, he continued, "These were chosen by my sister."

"Oh?" Fleur neared him and with an interested look in her eyes, inquired, "You have a sister too?"

Adrian took a few steps back and leaning on the nearby wall, nodded and replied,

"Yes, her name is Daphne. She is currently nine years old and we were born twins."

Fleur too accompanied him by leaning on the wall besides him. Hearing his words, she turned her head and looking at him strangely, commented, "You are only nine? I thought from your words, you were at least my age?"

Adrian shook his head and spoke back.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. But what about you?"

"About me?"

"What about your age? Your sister?"

"Hmm…" Fleur looked at him with a small smile on her face and commented back, "Asking a lady her age, and here Adrian, I thought you were a gentleman."

Adrian, catching her drift, turned towards her and shot back, "Yes, I am. But it doesn't apply for the lady who was blatantly staring at me, just to solve a _doubt_ , right?"

Fleur sounded amused by the banter, replied back, "No, no it doesn't." She the continued, "And to answer your question I am 12 years old and my baby sister's name is Gabrielle who is currently 6."

Adrian speculatively looked at her and said, "Then you must in the second year of your school."

"Third year." Fleur corrected. "Beauxbatons starts at 10 years of age."

Adrian could fell Fleur getting somewhat sad over the mention of her school, so tried to change the subject,

"So, … I couldn't help but notice your father is a bit…"

"Sugar-high?" Fleur supplied.

"…. Crazy, but I guess that works too."

Fleur seemed amused by his response and replied back,

"Its not that he always acts like that, He is just in the presence of his family and friends. Its enough that he has to face so much hate back home, so he wants to make people around him a bit livelier. You know?" At the end, Fleur's voice turned pensive.

"Ah, I understand." Adrian replied back in a small voice and a hushed silence fell over them.

Marrying a Veela, which was classified not even as a human, but a creature, it was no wonder Lord Delacour received hate. It would have been especially bad in a place like magical Britain where blood status matter more, but it seems being in France, one of the Veela friendly countries, didn't limit any prejudices towards him.

And as Adrian was about to introduce a new topic to uplift this somber atmosphere, in his peripheral vision, he noticed something was rapidly coming towards them, so he dragged Fleur by her shoulder and tackled them towards the ground.

As soon as their body hit the ground, the wall they were leaning on, scorched, curtesy of a large fireball.

Adrian and Fleur lifted their heads to find a peculiarly dressed man standing on the other side, holding a magical staff. From the small smoke coming from the shaman's staff, it wasn't hard to determine who tossed the fireball at them.

Adrian abruptly stood up to find the man looking at him and so he questioned him,

"Hello! Did you cast a fireball by mistake, Mr….?"

No response.

"Hello, is there any reason for you to attack us?"

Still no response.

The man was just blankly staring at Adrian with his dark eyes.

Adrian, with his peripheral vision, noticed Fleur's allure being directed towards the man, but the man didn't even twitch. Defeated, Fleur retreated the allure and continued looking at the man staring towards Adrian.

"Adrian?" Fleur inquired, "Do you know him?"

"No." Shaking his head, he replied back.

Suddenly, the man slammed his staff into the ground, and a blue colored dome surrounded the area.

Looking around Adrian noticed the silence and privacy runes on the walls lit up and inwardly cursed,

' _Shit. This is bad. Now no one in the party would be able to hear or see anything going on in the dome.'_

Adrian took out his trainer wand from his pocket and looked toward Fleur and whispered toward her,

"Fleur. Take out your wand."

Fleur understanding where this was going to end up, took out her wand and securely held it in her grip.

The intruder, probably alarmed by the wand in their hands, made a thrusting motion towards them and another fireball crashed towards them, forcing Adrian and Fleur to jump towards opposite sides.

Seeing that the man wasn't going to stop attacking them, the pair decided to attack the man.

Adrian thrusted his wand towards the man and muttered, "Stupefy!" and watched the red colored ray travelling towards his opponent. On the other side, he noticed, Fleur too had casted a spell and a yellow beam was travelling towards the man.

They waited as the man silently stood in the way of the spells and then the spells collided with him, making him…. _Do nothing?_ The man didn't even shrug as the spells exploded against his body.

' _He must be wearing magic resistant clothing.'_ Adrian thought out and as he was about to move towards Fleur, noticed the shaman raise the staff towards the sky and slammed it down. _Hard._

Pure blue lightning originated from the point and with near the speed of light travelled towards Fleur.

Adrian watched in horror, as Fleur screamed, sparks became visible on her skin and her wand fell out of her grip.

Sprinting towards her, he caught her in his arms before she could fall. And noticing her state, he quickly dug into his pouch and took out a green colored vial and unscrewed it. Placing her head on his lap, Adrian took the vial near Fleur's mouth.

Fleur, having enough awareness, noticing his movement and quirked her eyebrow.

"Don't worry." Adrian replied. "This is a potion created by Daphne in case I ever got electrocuted."

Fleur opened her mouth, perhaps to chuckle, about Daphne's worry over her brother, but Adrian didn't give her the time and promptly emptied the contents of the vial into her mouth.

While the potion took time to lessen the effects, Adrian was at least thankful towards the shaman who was giving them the time to recover. He mentally reminded himself to thank Daphne when he arrived home, who knew that a portion created by her in case Lord Greengrass ever electrified him, would come to rescue now.

Seeing Fleur somewhat recovered, Adrian addressed her,

"Fleur, the man is clearly after me. You are injured. It would be better if you ran towards your father or Lord Greengrass to inform about the situation."

As Fleur was about to argue, Adrian looked at her,

"Can't you see it? None of our spells can do any harm to him! We are useless here!" He turned towards Fleur with a pleading expression and said, "Go, go, at least save your own life."

This wasn't the first time, Adrian regretted his insight to learn more spells. Adrian regretted not helping Daphne crack their mother's diary's code to get access to her personal spells. Adrian regretted not training hard enough, so that he could have the access to family grimoires earlier. Even though he was carrying his sword, it wouldn't be able to cut and hence only be a hindrance. But, there's nothing he could do now, but to try to survive.

And with that, Adrian turned his back to Fleur and looked toward the man, who was still blankly staring at him.

Adrian addressing the man, spoke,

"Okay, I don't know who you are and why you are after me. But I have made a promise to Daphne this morning and I will damn! fulfill! it!"

With that, Adrian ran towards the man and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and a scarlet colored beam erupted from his wand towards the man who sprouted another fireball at him.

Ducking under the fireball, Adrian lifted his head to find the man, very near him and somewhat smiling, Adrian attempted the most powerful spell currently in his inventory,

"Bombarda Maxima!"

Adrian hopefully watched as his spell connected at point-blank range and black smoke enveloped the man but was somewhat disappointed and scared to find that when the smog cleared, the man wasn't injured and in front of his head, was the staff wielded by the man.

Accepting defeat, Adrian closed his eyes and muttered a simple "Sorry." to Daphne for not fulfilling their promise.

Feeling the concentrated magic in front of him, Adrian waited for his untimely demise but was surprised that a few seconds later, found the concentrated magic moved backwards.

He opened his eyes to find the shaman skidding a few steps backwards and turned around to find Fleur, her wand laid forgotten on the ground, catering to two small fireballs, in both her hands.

Breaking out of his near-death stupor, Adrian moved towards her and remarked,

"Not that I am not grateful to you, but why didn't you go away when you had the chance?"

Fleur raised an eyebrow at him and replied, "What, no question about how you managed the fireball?"

Adrian shot an annoyed look towards her, "I already told you I read about veelas and know they have the ability to manipulate fire."

"Quarter-Veela" Fleur corrected him. "I am a quarter-Veela, so manipulating fire is pretty hard for us. But lucky for you, I am a genius in this particular art."

Giving no time for Adrian to reply, Fleur continued, "And to answer your previous question, what kind of friend I would be if I ran away while leaving you in peril?"

"Friend huh…" Adrian looked at her, "Since when did we become friends?"

"Since, the moment you saved my life." Fleur shot back. "And now, that I have also saved your life, the debts are cleared."

There was no more time to talk as the shaman, this time with a black, soot covered face, once again shot another large fireball at them.

"Can't you just manipulate the fire in his fireballs and send it back?" Adrian asked Fleur as they dodged and he watched her throw two small fireballs at the man, who apparently, no longer surprised, just swiped the fireballs with his cloth covered arm.

"No. I am not that proficient yet and for us quarter-veelas, learning any fire ability is then times harder." Fleur replied back. Looking towards him, she asked, "Do you have any plan for taking him down?"

Adrian pondered for a moment and replied back,

"Yes, I do. But how much time do you think you would need to launch your strongest attack?"

"A little."

Adrian gave a small nod and addressed her, "Fleur, I will go in and try to distract him while buying you some time. When I give the signal, sent it towards him as fast as you can."

Fleur looked at him in concern, and exclaimed,

"B-but you could get caught in the crossfire!"

Adrian simply placed his hand on her shoulder and replied back, "Don't worry, I will be back. I promise."

And with that Adrian proceeded to sprint towards the man. While moving only a few steps forward, Adrian looked back to find Fleur concentrating and creating a semi-circle with her joined hands and so spoke towards her,

"Fleur." Once, he had her attention, he gave her a small smile and continued, "Don't worry, I believe in you."

And with the last parting words, Adrian turned his back towards Fleur and marched ahead towards the man.

Adrian's plan was pretty simple. Go in, be wary of his shots and attack the man to give Fleur the necessary time.

And so, Adrian quickly pocketed his trainer wand and charged towards the man.

Watching the boy, reach towards him, the man didn't waste any time to fire a close-range fireball.

But Adrian was prepared, casting his prototype wandless shield, which he had spent countless months practicing with Daphne to recreate her accidental magic, Adrian watched in fascination as the fireball struggled against the shield and was later snuffed out by the shield. But Adrian didn't have any time to celebrate as the thrusting motion of the staff used to create the fireball passed through his shield and impacted on his chest.

It hurt. It so bloody hurt. But he persevered.

Initiating the next part of his plan, Adrian concentrated all the magic in his body into his arms and collided both of his fists, on the man's stomach with great force. As the man, doubled over, Adrian then put some magic in his legs and with a frog-like jump, pounded his magic-concentrated fists, under the man's chins giving him a twin uppercut.

Adrian didn't allow himself to celebrate as the man was lifted a few inches of the ground, but shouted,

"Fleur."

And with that, he quickly gripped back his wand, pointed towards one of the far away walls and muttered "Vectatio!" Just in the brink of time as he felt a heat source rapidly approaching his position.

As Adrian allowed himself to be transported over, using the pretty common spell, in which the user had to point towards a nearby object to be transported towards it, he watched in fascination, as a large white-hot fireball collided with the man and carried the man to impact over a nearby wall.

After landing near the wall, Adrian wasted no time to run towards Fleur who had her hands placed on her knees and was panting heavily. Acquiring her wand, which was laying on the ground, Adrian gave the wand back to her, and asked her,

"Are you okay?"

"Idiot…" Still panting, Fleur replied, "Didn't… you… get hurt?"

Adrian put on a strong face and replied back, "It's okay, don't worry I am fine." He wasn't. He could feel the bruise forming on his chest.

Seeing the signs of an upcoming argument, Adrian decided to change the topic of conversation.

"Do you think that he is defeated?"

Fleur slowly shook her head and replied, "I don't know. But I don't think I can last much longer. I poured almost all my magic into that attack."

Adrian wanted to say that everything would be okay, but couldn't, he too was in the same condition as her and they truly would be dead, if the fight lasted any longer.

And as if to tempt their fates, the man walked forward, Adrian and Fleur could see the dent in the wall where the man had impacted curtesy of Fleur's fireball, but other than a few burned garments and a soot-covered face, the man didn't even look injured by the attack.

Adrian and Fleur gripped their wands hard as the man was about to raise his staff for another attack.

But at that moment, a blue spell coming from behind the pair, impacted the man and he simply slipped unconscious.

Fleur and Adrian turned around to find Dumbledore who was with an extended wand, Fleur's parents and Lord Greengrass walking towards them.

As Fleur ran towards her parents and Adrian neared Lord Greengrass, he couldn't help but notice the dome now slowly vanishing.

After waiting for a few seconds as Fleur hugged her mother, Dumbledore cleared his throat and looked towards the children.

"Perhaps, anyone could tell me what exactly happened here?"

Adrian and Fleur looked at one another and Adrian started speaking,

"Well, we were walking here and …"

Adrian told Dumbledore, Lord Greengrass and the Delacour couple what exactly had transpired at the place, while leaving out his wandless magic bit, with Fleur occasionally adding in bits and bits of information.

"…. And then we watched as he recovered from Fleur's fireball and was about to attack us, when you showed up." Adrian finished.

Also, while Adrian and Fleur were retelling the incident, no one noticed Lord Greengrass discreetly pocket a pentagon-shaped portkey from the ground.

"Papa, how did you find us?" Adrian turned towards Fleur as he heard her question Lord Delacour.

"Well, even through the privacy wards, your mother could fell you using the _particular_ magic and after quickly getting a hold of Dumbledore, we came here."

Nodding to the tale, Dumbledore spoke aloud,

"That was a commendable amount of bravery and talent shown by you children." Nodding his head, he continued, "If it were Hogwarts, I would have rewarded 100 points to you."

Turning towards Fleur, he addressed her, "Fleur Delacour, I will make sure to let Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons know about the bravery and talent shown by you here."

Fleur simply bowed her head towards him and then Dumbledore turned towards Adrian,

"And as for you Adrian, I have only one think to say to you that, I would be waiting for you at Hogwarts in a couple years."

Adrian too bowed his head towards the Supreme Mugwump.

"Dumbledore sir." Lord Delacour remarked and Dumbledore turned towards him, "What about the unwanted guest?" Delacour pointed towards the unconscious body.

But Dumbledore simply waved his hand and spoke, "Do not worry, it could be clearly seen that the man was under the effects of a potion. But being the Supreme Mugwump, I am responsible for your safety and do not worry, an investigation will be carried out on the man and its results will be mailed to you and Lord Greengrass."

Lord Greengrass apparently satisfied with enough drama for the evening, turned towards Adrian and spoke,

"Come along, we are leaving."

And giving a small nod to Dumbledore and Monsieur Delacour, he took out the pentagon portkey from his pockets.

Adrian gave a small smile and nod to Fleur and mouthed,

"Promise Fulfilled."

to her and seeing her nod back, took hold of the portkey and transported away from there.

After the Greengrass' left, Dumbledore turned towards the Delacours and spoke, "Well, I too must depart now. Some one has to tell the guards that there is an unconscious man in the hallways." And with that Dumbledore left.

Fleur watched as her parents fused over her well-being, but only one thought was going through her mind.

' _Adrian Greengrass.'_

 **XXXXX**

Adrian was transported in the main entrance hall of the Greengrass manor and while he stumbled a bit, it was better than earlier this evening. As Adrian and Lord Greengrass stood across one another, Adrian dutifully remained silent, waiting to be addressed.

"Adrian."

Adrian looked up towards Lord Greengrass and watched as Lord Greengrass continued,

"Meet me tomorrow morning in my office. It is time you started learning the family spells."

Lord Greengrass watched as Adrian didn't show any emotion on his face and apparently satisfied, started to walk away towards his room.

As soon as Lord Greengrass left, a small smile sprouted on his face and slightly shaking his head, Adrian too walked towards his room.

Knocking on the closed door of his room, Adrian waited for a few moments for Daphne.

"Who is it?" Adrian heard Daphne question from the other side of the door.

"Its me. Adrian."

"And how do I know its not just a Polyjuiced person or you are not using a voice-changing charm?"

A small teasing smile broke on his face, and so he replied,

"Of course not. You wouldn't know. But I know about a little girl who didn't know how to fly on a broom and in her first flight crashed into a nearby tree. Of course, I would also know how the girl was hanging upside down with her frock turned towards the head …"

The door suddenly opened and Adrian prepared himself for an impact as a red-faced, embarrassed Daphne started beating on his chest.

Of course, that beating soon stopped as she realized that he had been hurt and started fusing over him and asking him numerable questions.

All in one, Adrian realized that this would be a memorable day as he made a new friend and shared some precious memories with his sister.

 **XXXXX**

Instead of going to his bedroom, Eugene Greengrass took a turn to enter his study. Walking towards his table, he took out a wooden mailbox from one of the drawers of the table. Opening the mailbox, he took out one envelope from the box, simply labeled Sullivan.

Opening the envelope, Lord Greengrass wasted no time to fill it with hundreds of galleons and watched as the galleons simply disappeared when he closed and sealed the envelope **(2)**.

Today had been an eventful day, he decided.

Today was meant to be a test. Test for eligibility.

Lord Greengrass' eyes fell on the pentagon portkey.

He had intentionally, _dropped_ the portkey in the hallway and after some considerable duration, was going to make Adrian go fetch it. And when Adrian reached the hallway, the test would commerce.

Survive.

It was pretty easy to bribe a tribal shaman to do his bidding.

Inserting Adrian's appearance in the shaman's mind and obliviating the rest of his meeting with Lord Greengrass. Then making him take a rage, pain killer and focusing potion so that the shaman wouldn't be affected by speech or emotions while creating a temporary portkey for him to enter the hallway at the exact time when Lord Greengrass knew sentries wouldn't be posted.

Even if Dumbledore scanned the man's memories, he wouldn't find any trace or involvement of Lord Greengrass' and when the shaman would finally be free and would enter his house, he would, as in the contract, find hundreds of galleons addressed to him.

While the Delacours had threatened to make his plan fail as he wanted to follow Adrian discreetly and watch him survive, but Monsieur had dragged him away and Lord Greengrass also wanted Adrian to single-handedly survive, so the presence of the daughter had made that option unavailable, but the plan still worked. Not as perfectly as he calibrated and planned it to be, but it was still okay.

The Greengrass heir survived.

When the house-elves had complained to him how Daphne had attempted to poison and kill the heir, he just wanted to see who would win, hatred or suffering.

But it wasn't to be, as the twins soon reconciled. And Eugene had no problem with that. If they could become stronger depending on each other, it was still okay.

It wouldn't matter. Much.

Maybe that's why he decided to reward Daphne by making her _accidently_ stumble upon Adrianna's journal.

Though he could have supplied the key too, he wanted to see if she could decrypt it on her own. If she cracked the code herself, no worries and if she didn't, there was a possibility that she could _accidently_ stumble upon the key too in a few years.

But it wasn't his problem now.

Turning off the lights of the study room, Eugene started walking towards his bedroom.

Today had been an eventful day. He decided.

 _Everything was going according to the plan._

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: Quick question, do you prefer Adrian's 1** **st** **person POV as in the first chapter or the third person POV as exhibited in this chapter? And reasons.**

 **(1) In the hpwikia, the ICW was said to be founded before the 1690s, and so taking it as 1689, making 300 years later 1989, the current year, worked in my favour.**

 **(2) It works similar to that of the vanishing cabinet used by Draco Malfoy.**

 **I think this chapter was a bit longer than what I had expected but I didn't want to leave it on a cliff-hanger.**

 **The fight scene was specifically crafted to show that a nine-year boy, perhaps even a reincarnated one, stood no chance against a fully trained wizard.**

 **Also, pairing isn't confirmed yet, though it might look now that the pairing could be with Fleur, I don't know when they would meet again and how the years would change them. But still, I don't think there would be any pairing recently, at least not till the fourth year.**

 **You guy can complain, that this is so slow paced and all, but I like to build some story, some plot, backstory and characterization before moving to interactions and actions. The prime example would be Daphne's backstory.**

 **Looking for a beta, if interested PM me.**

 **The tone of the fic will neither be dark or light, it will be** _ **neutral grey.**_

 **All suggestions, reviews, criticism, remarks are welcome. Share with me what you think in the reviews.**

 **Also, I am a novice writer, to all the visitors, even if you don't like the story, at least give me a suggestion in reviews on how I could improve myself and why you are not interested in the story.**

* * *

 **Posted on 7** **th** **April 2018**


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